Zhang Qian

Zhang Qian was the famous Chinese diplomatist and explorer in the West Han Dynasty. In the 2nd century B.C. Zhang Qian was sent for diplomatic missions during 20 years and exploited the famous Silk Road.

In 138 B.C. Zhang Qian was on his first way to the west to implement the strategic intent of Emperor Wu in the Han Dynasty to resist the Huns with Yueh Chi.

He led a team starting from Chang’an and was interrupted by the Huns in Longxi, where he was imprisoned for over 10 years. Later he took an opportunity to escape to the west in a hurry. Finally he reached Yueh Chi. However, his proposal to resist the Huns with Yueh Chi was not responded by the latter and he had to return to his motherland. Unexpectedly he was again stopped by the Huns and took into custody for over a year and then he took pains to come back to Chang’an.

The visit to the west this time though did not achieve the goal, he learned about geography, products and customs of nations in the west in details, providing precious experience for the Han Dynasty to exploit a hub to Central Asia.

Afterwards he was sent to the west as Zhonglang for a second time and this time he made diplomatic progress. In 114 B.C., or the next year after he came back from the visit to the west, Zhang Qian died in Chang’an.

Zhang Qian was the first ambassador who exploited the way to the west in the West Han Dynasty. His two visits to the west linked up business relation betweenChinaand western Asia and Europe.

Afterwards the way exploited by Zhang Qian across the east and the west connecting Asia and Europe has become the Silk Road which has been praised for thousands of years. The Silk Road glitters in history of human civilization for the most civilization forms it connects and the longest history it spans. In 1877 it was named the Silk Road by German geographer Lothar Freiherr von Richthofen.